Pasta with Chard and Chickpeas

When I returned from my cruise, one of the first things my daughter said to me was, “I’m really glad you’re home, but I just wish you cooked as well as Dad!”

Gee, thanks a lot. And huh???

So I asked exactly what her dad had cooked while I was gone. “Mac and Cheeze, spaghetti, Chili Mac….” I immediately noticed a theme–no, not that he was mostly using my recipes but that he was cooking her favorite substance on earth: Pasta. I vowed right then and there to make more pasta.

I have a theory that E will eat anything as long as it’s mixed with pasta. To test it, I took a couple of her least favorite ingredients, portabella mushrooms and red chard, and combined them with spiral pasta and chickpeas, two of her favorite ingredients. She enjoyed the dish so much that she didn’t even mind the hint of spiciness I managed to sneak in with a couple of pinches of red pepper flakes.

Fortunately, I’ve found a brand of 100% organic whole wheat pasta that we all like, Delallo, so I don’t feel guilty about adding a little more pasta to our diet, especially if it gets my little greens-hater to eat more leafy greens. Of course, you can make this recipe completely gluten-free by using your favorite gluten-free pasta. Buon appetito!

Instructions

Heat water for pasta and begin to cook it according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, wash the chard and remove the stems; set them aside for another use. Chop the leaves coarsely.

Over medium-high heat, heat a large non-stick pan. Add the onion and sprinkle it lightly with salt. Cook, stirring, until onion begins to brown. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and mushrooms and reduce heat. Cook, stirring, until mushrooms soften, adding a tablespoon or two of water if needed to prevent sticking. Add tomato paste and water and stir to combine. Add chickpeas and simmer until pasta is done.

When pasta is cooked, remove and reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid before draining. Add 1/2 cup of the liquid to chickpeas and mushrooms. Stir in the chard and cover. Cook until chard is just wilted, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in the pasta, add additional pasta water if necessary to moisten, and add salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, stir in orange juice or balsamic vinegar.

I have been thrilled with pretty much all of your recipes since I have stumbled upon your blog and often re-post them on the facebook page for my health counseling practice. But pasta (with tomatoes) has always been my favorite dish on earth, and this one is right up my alley. My mouth started to water the second I read the title and photo looks divine!

This looks delicious, definetely something I will try with my little one — who loves greens and mushrooms, though, so it's not a matter of using pasta to get her to eat her greens!Question about the Delallo pasta — how heavy is it? I've found that all the whole wheat pastas I've tried are too heavy for my almost 3-year-old to eat. She loves pasta, but I have to use non-whole-wheat varieties because she just can't eat the whole wheat ones well — one bite seems to take her 5-10 minutes to chew and swallow. But if I use semolina pasta or Jerusalem artichoke pasta, she eats it all up super quick. Thanks for this recipe!

We tried this tonight and really enjoyed it. We did do a few changes. We used the gluten free brown rice spiral pasta. We jused Kale instead of swiss chard (I like Kale better) and we used regular mushrooms. Other than those changes basically followed your recipe. Thanks–when my hubby loves something then I am a happy camper!

That looks and sounds soooo good!So simple, but such a great combination. That's actually a favorite of mine, or at least a variation of it: greens of some type, beans of some type, tomato product of some type, grain of some type, and usually some other vegetable too. The baby bellas sound perfect.

I am a first time visitor to your blog, but I am sure glad I happened to hop over here! This recipe is delicious and so healthy.. what an excellent way to use up chard and chickpeas together with whole wheat pasta! This is going right to my bookmark folder. thanks for sharing 🙂

That was fabulous! Although my mind tried very hard to butcher the recipe, it came out tasting delicious and my whole family loved it. 🙂 I used spinach instead of chard, navy beans instead of chickpeas and normal mushrooms instead of the Portobello. Oh.. and I used no salt and accidentally poured too much pepper in and forgot the liquid at the end. Haha.. but it still tasted great! 😀

A, I find baby "bellas" with the other mushrooms in my local supermarket (Kroger). However, you could use any kind of mushrooms, including regular-sized portabellas; just cut them into bite-sized slices.

I've been reading your blog for a long time, but I've never commented. I just wanted to say hi, and let you know that I linked to several of my favorite recipes of yours from my blog today! I love your site, and turn to it quite often when I need inspiration! And your photos are always so drool-worthy!

Made this for dinner..with leftovers for lunch..lucky me!Really good dish with some of my favorite flavors. Of course I cooked the pasta in water, but otherwise used veggie broth. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!

Awesome recipe and awesome blog. I'm going to post a link so my 3-4 imaginary readers can find this blog. I'm trying this recipe tomorrow evening with high hopes that it will be a hit with my savage meat-eating family…

I made this on Sunday for myself and my vegetarian daughter. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. I found my meat loving husband with a big bowl of it too. I thought the flavors were very good. Loved the mushrooms and greens. I think next time I might use a little more tomato paste to kick the intensity up a bit, but otherwise this is a near perfect dish. I'll definetely be making this again. Quick, easy, uses mainly pantry items and DELISH! Thanks Susan!

We made this tonight pretty much as your recipe says, and it was absolutely wonderful. I am further thrilled to have a dish that has a great balance of greens, legumes, whole wheat pasta AND is quick and easy. Thank you.

Made this with some tweaks cause we are more of a heavy on the sauce and veggie family and light on the noodles. Used one super super large portobella mushroom(seriously the biggest one I have ever seen). Two bunches of chard and a large onion. Also only used 1/2 the amount of noodles and added some spaghetti sauce in with everything. The 3 year old loved it, the one year old was being a little crabby with her new teeth coming in so she wouldn’t try it but both adults loved it.

This was very tasty. Substituted the chick peas with great northerns because my husband isn’t a fan of chick peas. I think it would have been better with the chick peas, forsure, or even cannelli beans. Used balsamic instead of orange juice and we both decided the orange juice would be better, wasn’t fond of the vinegar taste with this dish. We will make it again, but will add more of everything to the pasta. It needed more greens and mushrooms. It was nice and filling! Enjoyed it.